Studio Legends: Bil VornDick

How did you get involved in the
Martin project?
I got a call from Larry [Fishman], who
said that Martin wanted to put out a series of the old famous Martins: the D-18, the
D-28, the D-45, and the OM. He said,
“They’re going to bring down the guitars
from the [Martin] museum and we’re going
to image them and try to get the new
guitars—when someone plugs in with the
Aura—to sound like the old guitars.”

We really didn’t know what was going to
happen until Larry processed some of the signal
into an Aura and actually plugged it in, to
see if it would work. We were both amazed.

That’s a fun project!
It took a couple of days. They came to the
studio here at the house and unloaded a
million dollars worth of Martins. [Laughs.]
Then I went out and got a slew of microphones—an Electro-Voice 639, I got that
from RCA Studio B. It was one of [legendary
Nashville producer] Owen Bradley’s
microphones. I got a Telefunken ELA
M251 from there, and Wes Dooley let me
use some of his ribbon mics.

So you didn’t just use the original vintage
guitars, you also used original vintage
microphones.
Yes, because there are a lot of traditional
players that want—but can’t afford—an old
vintage Martin, but they want it to sound
like it would have sounded in the ’30s, ’40s,
or ’50s. That’s how we were able to accomplish
it.

How much does the rest of the gear that
you use—the preamps, EQs, compressors—factor into the sounds that you get?
Quite a bit. On [the Retro series], I was
shooting four microphones at one time
and I went through APIs [mic preamps]. I
needed a defined and uncolored sound on
them, so that’s what we used.

What about when you’re recording someone
like Jerry Douglas or Béla Fleck?
The Great River [MEQ-1NV preamp] and
a pair of [Neumann] U 67s are normally
what I use on Jerry. On Béla it would vary
depending on the banjo. I use Neve preamps
a lot or APIs.

How much equalization did you end up
doing once you capture those sounds?
Mainly just high passing. It would be very
good for the people who are reading this
to know that they need to know the frequency
range and the lowest note on the
instrument that they are recording. Once
you put that high-pass filter in, the instrument
will feel like it is lifting itself out of
the speakers.

Other than that, there’s no EQ?
No, not much, if any.

What about when you’re making a record?
Sometimes there are different hot spots in
some guitars. The older guitars usually have
a boom between 160 and 240 Hz that you
have to taper a little bit. But usually that’s
about it. It depends on what key they’re in.

It can vary from song to song?
Right. The key of the song is very important.
It’s like tuning a vocal. If you don’t
know what key the vocal is in, you could be
searching all day for the right notes.

What advice do you have for someone
who’s trying to record acoustic instruments
at home, who doesn’t have an ideal
acoustic environment?
Base it all on performance.

Don’t stress about the sound quality?
Well, sound quality is good, but the people that
are driving down the road, I think they’re more
interested in the performance than they are
in, “Whoa, what microphone did you use on
that?” I don’t know of anybody driving down
the road listening to the radio calling anybody
and asking them, “What mic are you using?”
Well, I do get those calls, I guess. [Laughs.]

It’s all about the song.
It is about the song. The main thing is, if it’s
not happening, walk away. Get something
to eat, make sure your blood sugar’s right,
and go in and try again. The hardest thing
for most artists is knowing when to stop and
walk away. In all the decades I’ve been doing
this, usually when I have an artist who’s getting
frustrated because they can’t play exactly
what they’re hearing in their head and their
fingers aren’t working with their mind, if you
get them away for 10 or 15 minutes, they’ll
go right back in and knock it right out.

That’s the psychologist part of being a
producer … knowing when to have the
artist step back.
Exactly.

What’s the hardest instrument to record?
Probably the hardest instrument to mic
is the hammered dulcimer because of the
overtone series it generates. The mics have
to be perfectly in phase. I normally use KM
84s. I’m getting ready to do my 88th album
on Craig Duncan soon.

Wow, 88 albums?
He does instrumental albums for the gift
markets and tourist places that sell a lot of
product. You’d be amazed how many people
want to listen to the melody, but they don’t
want somebody screaming at them. And
pretty much in music today, it’s how loud
can you make it and how compressed is the
vocal? A lot of people say, “Why are they
screaming at me?” So listening to instrumental
music is pleasing and relaxing.

It’s an industry perception, rather than a
listener perception, that a recording has
to be made that loud.
I learned that a long time ago. My daughter
had a birthday party and the girls found my
collection of vinyl. They had never seen vinyl
records before, so I showed them how to set
the needle down. What I noticed was that
when they put the needle down, they turned
it up and listened to it. Then later, I came
down, you know, delivering the pizzas and
the Cokes and stuff, and they had the CD
player out and they were playing a CD, pushing
play and then turning it down. That told
me a whole lot.

Mitch Gallagher's latest book is Guitar Tone: Pursuing the Ultimate Guitar Sound. He is the former Editor in Chief of EQ magazine. In addition to being a writer, he is a freelance recording engineer/producer/mastering engineer, teaches music business and audio recording at Indiana University/Purdue University, and is Sweetwater’s Editorial Director. mitchgallagher.com.

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